Question

Passage

The introduction of the potato (Solanum tuberosum) to continental Europe was met with profound suspicion. In eighteenth-century France, the tuber was widely regarded as unfit for human consumption, believed to cause leprosy and deplete the soil of vital nutrients. The Parlement of Paris went so far as to officially ban its cultivation in 1748. It was not until the tireless efforts of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, an apothecary who served in the French army during the Seven Years’ War, that the French public began to reconsider this prejudice.

During his military service, Parmentier was captured five times by Prussian forces. During these periods of confinement, most notably in a prison camp in Hamburg, he was forced to subsist on a diet consisting almost exclusively of potatoes. Surprised by his own survival and continued health, he resolved to rehabilitate the vegetable's reputation upon his return to France. Parmentier’s campaign began in earnest when he won a prestigious essay contest hosted by the Academy of Besançon in 1773, which sought solutions to the frequent famines plaguing the nation. His winning paper argued that the potato was the ideal crop to alleviate public hunger.

Despite his academic success, Parmentier faced steep resistance from the established medical and political authorities. Seeking to dismantle their objections, he initiated a series of chemical analyses to prove the potato's nutritional value. In 1772, largely due to his persistent lobbying and scientific demonstrations, the Paris Faculty of Medicine formally declared the potato edible. Yet, declaring the crop safe was only half the battle; Parmentier still had to convince a highly skeptical agrarian population to grow it and a suspicious public to eat it.

To accomplish this, Parmentier utilized a series of ingenious public relations strategies designed to generate interest and prestige around the humble root. In 1785, he secured the patronage of King Louis XVI, who granted him fifty arpents (approximately forty-two acres) of sandy, historically infertile land at Les Sablons, just west of Paris. Parmentier cultivated potatoes on this land and employed a clever psychological trick: he hired royal guards to watch over the fields in their distinctive uniforms. The presence of armed guards suggested that the crop was of immense value, meant only for the nobility. Critically, Parmentier instructed the guards to accept any bribes offered by curious locals and to intentionally look the other way if peasants attempted to pilfer the plants under the cover of darkness. The plan worked precisely as intended. Believing they were stealing a royal delicacy, local farmers quickly acquired the seeds, and potato cultivation spread throughout the region.

In addition to this agricultural subterfuge, Parmentier sought to elevate the potato's culinary status among the elite. He hosted lavish dinners in Paris where every course, from the soup to the liqueurs, featured the potato in some form. These banquets were attended by prominent figures of the day, including the American envoy Benjamin Franklin and the pioneering chemist Antoine Lavoisier. At one public gathering, Parmentier presented a bouquet of potato blossoms to King Louis XVI, who placed one in his buttonhole, while Queen Marie Antoinette wore them in her hair, briefly making the pale purple flowers a fashion trend among the aristocracy.

While these theatrical gestures captured the attention of the upper classes, it was the harsh reality of the crop's resilience that ultimately secured its place in French agriculture. During the devastating famine of 1785 and the subsequent agricultural disruptions of the French Revolution, the potato proved to be a reliable lifesaver when grain crops failed. By the time of Parmentier's death in 1813, the potato had transitioned from a feared vector of disease to a staple of the French diet, a transformation catalyzed by scientific advocacy and theatrical showmanship.

According to the passage, the presence of armed guards at the Les Sablons estate was intended to achieve which of the following results?